The circles on the mini map explained

On your mini map in the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you can see three different circles. I will explain the meaning of these here, and how you can and should use them. (If you by any chance cannot see the mini map, press the “m” key to turn it on.)
This is a screenshot of a mini map:

World of tanks mini map

As you can see, there are three circles on it:

1. The closest circle, which is green, shows your current view range. Any enemy tank inside that circle, will be visible to you and your team mates, unless the tank is behind a rock or building, or if it is inside a bush.
2. The middle circle, the white one, shows the maximum view range in the game, which is 454 meters. If you have a good crew, and a tank with good view range, the green and white circle will have the same distance from your tank. (They show almost as one circle.)
3. The third circle is the render range, which is the range where tanks spotted by one of your teammates will be visible also to you, even if the tank is outside your view range.

Two situations where capping is a good alternative

Rushing for the cap circle right from the beginning is a bad idea. Most cap circles are impossible to hide in, and the enemy only need to damage your tank once or to score a critical hide to reset your cap points. Kill your enemies instead of capping. You earn more xp and credits by doing so.

However: Here are two situations where going for the cap circle is a good alternative.

The cap circle is not a magnet

Take a look at this replay. Pay attention to what happens to the tanks that try to cap. The same thing happens in both cap circles. There is indeed something to learn from this: Capping while the enemy is close rarely goes well.

To cap or not to cap?

One mistake I see a lot of newcomers to World of tanks are doing, is to rush for the enemy cap zone. Let’s get one thing clear: The individual player earn more XP by doing damage to the enemy than by capping. And the xp is what you want, not cap points.

If you focus on defending your own cap circle, and damage enemy tanks that try to cap, you will get much more xp than by capping yourself. In fact, you can get the same amount of xp in a few seconds by damaging a tank inside your own cap circle as you can do by capping. Let’s say an enemy tank has stayed inside your cap circle and reached 85 to 90 cap points. If you damage that tank and reset the cap, with as little as one single damaging shot, you will earn more xp than if you cap to a 100% yourself.

And if the tank inside your cap circle is one or even two tiers higher than your own tank, you will earn even more xp.

Pay attention to where you are going

This is a fairly short post about something very specific: Pushing or bumping into allies.

Recently I had a game where one of my allies obviously was a newbie, and did not pay enough attention to where he was going. I was playing with my T67 on El Halluf. When playing the T67 at this map, I prefer to go to one of the ridge lines and wait to see where my team mates are going, while I spot for scout tanks. (Later on on this map, I will move to support my team and/or flank enemies.

So I positioned myself, and waited for my binoculars to kick in. Just when they did, an ally started pushing me over the ridge line. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but nevertheless. I had to move. So I went to a different position, and started spotting and waiting again. Less than a minute later, the same ally came to where I was and did the same again! I guess he drove his tank in sniper mode, not paying attention to the mini map.

But he must have heard the sound from the collision, and he must have noticed that his progress halted, as he slowly pushed me over the ridge line again.

So, what is the lesson to be learned from  this? My ally probably didn’t learn anything, but the advice from me is: Do not push or bump into your allies. If they are aiming for an enemy and you bump into them, and your ally will either miss his target or will have to aim again. In any case: Any such behavior will reduce the efficiency of your team, and this will in the long run reduce the win rate of your team, and – of course – your win rate.

You might ask “Why should I  care about how well my team mates are doing?” Simply because you will benefit from it. A win will increase your XP and your in game credits, remember?

Help! I’m in a match, and don’t know what to do!

From time to time, you enter a match with a really good player, either on your own team or on the enemy team. Because they know what to do with their tank, they do well, even if the drive a “shitty” tank. Learn from them, and do as they do.

Here are a few principles good players follow:

• Know your tank. Be aware of what it is capable of and what it’s weaknesses are. Is your gun depression good? Go to a hilly terrain. Is the gun accurate? Snipe. Good armour? Fight close to the enemy. Good players know these things and use their tank accordingly.
• Know the role of your tank. If you are driving a medium tank, use it’s speed, and play a supporting role. Don’t go head to head with a heavy tank, unless it is a lower tier heavy. (If you drive a tier 7 medium, you can engage tier 5 heavys. But be careful.)
• Be aware of where your allies are, and support them. Basically, a tank left alone on a battlefield with two or three enemies close by, will die.
• Before the battle starts, look at the enemy team. Where will they move? Who will go where? What enemies should you avoid, and what enemies should you engage?
• When the battle starts: Check where your allies go, and decide who to follow and support. If one side of the map is abandoned by your team, try to secure this side defensively. Ask for help if necessary. (Press the F7 key.)
• When you meet an enemy, and shoots at him/her and you cannot penetrate any of your first shots, withdraw. If 3 shots cannot penetrate and damage the enemy, nor will the next 3 shots. Find another target, don’t hope for miracles.

But rule number is always: Use the minimap. Check where your allies are and where the enemy is. Good players ALWAYS do that.

How to win a battle?

In this post I will cover only two of the game modes in World of Tanks: Standard battle and Encounter battle.

Standard battle
Each of the teams start in or near their own base, and there are two bases on the map. You win either by killing all members on the enemy team, or by capturing their base. To capture a base, at least one tank has to stay inside the white circle for at least 100 seconds, without being damaged by a member on the enemy team.  The more tanks that stay inside the white circle, the faster you will capture the base. If one enemy tank manages to damage one of the tanks inside their base, the capture counter is reset.

But: Forget capturing (“capping”) the enemy base if you have the chance to kill all members on the enemy team. You will – as a team – earn more experience by killing all your enemies, and it is quite risky to rely only on capping. You can lose a battle while trying to cap the enemy base, but if your team protects your own base effectively, you can’t do any worse then a draw. Only focusing on capping is the newcomers biggest mistake.

You will also find out, that defending your own base, by damaging or even kill an enemy tank trying to cap your base, will increase your XP. However; this does not mean that you should only focus on defending. If you do, you might leave one team member unassisted somewhere on the battle field. How to balance this? You have two vital sources of information:

1. The Minimap
2. The siren, which you hear when someone on the enemy is capping.

The minimap is your best companion on the battlefield. Use it. Use it! USE IT! You will see your enemy marked as red dots on the minimap. Notice how they move, and act accordingly. If you see the enemy getting close to your base, try to go back to reset any attempt they might make to capture the base. Do NOT try to “counter cap”. You will most often lose the match. (But not always.)

Encounter battle

Encounter battle
On encounter battle, there is only one base, and both teams have to capture the same base. Both teams start the battle an equal distance from the base. If tanks from both teams stay inside the base, the counter stops. Do exactly as in a standard battle: Kill enemy tanks, and/or defend the base. And use the minimap.

For both game modes
Never go alone. Always ensure you go with a team member when you start the battle. But: Do not go where all the others go. Encourage your team to secure more than one area on the battlefield. If all team members go on one side of the map, and the enemy team divides into two or three groups, your team might kill a third of the enemy team, but they might be able to flank your team (shooting your team from the side), or capping your base.

And also: If you all go on one side, you will get a “traffic jam”, being unable to shoot at opposing tanks. Therefore: Spread out over the battlefield in two or more groups. (Scouts aside.)